Sure, the Lakers won their sixth consecutive game. No question, they outclassed the Washington Wizards for extended stretches en route to a 99-92 victory at Staples Center. Undoubtedly, they jogged to the finish line.

“It was an awful second half,” said Jackson, the Lakers’ Hall of Fame coach. “There was no intensity. We didn’t play right. We didn’t play with a full functioning group of guys. Kobe (Bryant) took one shot in the second half, and that was it.

“It just says something about our lack of intensity.”

Jackson also said he “talked to the team about playing the right way” and he groused about their lack of efficiency offensively, adding, “The offense is really easy to run. You swing the basketball and change sides of the floor.

“The offense stalls when there’s no rhythm.”

In the beginning, the Lakers (52-18) seemed to be toying with the Wizards. Bryant drifted behind the 3-point line late in the second quarter, accepted a pass from teammate Derek Fisher and then swished a jump shot from 26 feet.

Moments later, he made another 3. Then another.

Bryant scored 20 of his 24 points during an electric second quarter that turned the game into a rout by halftime. He made 8 of 11 shots, including 4 of 6 from beyond the 3-point arc, during the period and helped the Lakers outscore the Wizards, 35-15.

The Lakers led the Wizards 24-18 after the first quarter. By the time Bryant completed his outburst, the Lakers were ahead of Washington by 59-33 at halftime. The second half wasn’t more of the same, however.

The Lakers led by as many as 28 points in the second half, with Bryant scoring only two points on 1-for-1 shooting. Then they put their game in cruise control, according to Jackson, who made no secret of his displeasure after the game.

Washington cut the Lakers’ lead to eight in the closing minutes and then to only seven after Nick Young’s 3-pointer beat the final buzzer. The Lakers’ lead was never in serious jeopardy, but Jackson was still not pleased by their second-half letdown.

“It’s a late-season malaise,” Jackson said during a seven-minute postgame rant. “It concerns me. By playing a lackadaisical game, they actually expended more energy. It’s human behavior, but we want to go beyond that.”

Playing for the first time since Andrew Bynum suffered a strained left Achilles tendon that might sideline him for at least two weeks, the Lakers didn’t rely on just one player to win. Or even two or three or four because his one was a group effort.

At least, it would appear that way to anyone simply reading the box score.

Young, a former USC standout, scored 22 points for Washington, which lost its 11th in a row and fell to 21-47 overall. Al Thornton, one of five former Clippers on the Wizards’ active roster, added 18 points.

“We did a good job,” Bryant said. “I saw what I wanted to see. We didn’t close the game out the right way, but I liked what I saw. We didn’t miss too many assignments defensively. We did a really good job.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He covered the Ducks for 12 years, including the Stanley Cup season, for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze before returning to the beat in 2018 for SCNG. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.